CAHROM (2013)18 EN Thematic report on social housing for Roma and legalisation of Roma houses and settlements

Experts from ALBANIA, requesting country: Ms Blerina Zoto Tepelena, Technical Secretariat on Roma, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs andEqual Opportunities CAHROM member Mr Gentian Kapr

Experts from ALBANIA, requesting country:

Ms Blerina Zoto Tepelena, Technical Secretariat on Roma, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs andEqual Opportunities (CAHROM member)

Mr Gentian Kaprata, Director, Ministry of Public Works and Transport

Ms Manjola Veizi, Roma expert, Roma Women Rights Centre

Experts from BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA and “THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA”, partner countries:

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Mr Milan Jovanović, Head of Minority Department,

Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosniaand Herzegovina

Ms Ljiljana Šantić, Expert Advisor and Coordinatorfor Roma Housing in the Ministry for Human Rightsand Refugees (CAHROM member)

Ms Hedina Sijercić, Roma expert, Coordinator forRoma in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”: Ms Mabera Kamberi, Head of the Sector for

Coordination and Technical Assistance, Ministry ofLabour and Social Policy (CAHROM member)

Ms Sara Shabani, Coordinator of ZELS(Association of Local Self-Government Units)

Mr Neizir Huseini, Roma expert, ProgrammeManager at Roma Democratic DevelopmentAssociation SONCE

1 The term “Roma” used at the Council of Europe refers to Roma, Sinti, Kale and related groups in Europe, including Travellers and the Eastern groups (Dom and Lom), and covers the wide diversity of the groups concerned, including persons who identify themselves as Gypsies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.3 Size and composition of the Roma groups in the participating countries page 5

III RELEVANT EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND

IV LEGISLATION, POLICIES, STRUCTURES AND SPECIFIC MEASURES page 11

4.1.1 Roma and housing policiespage 11

4.1.3 Partnership between the public and private sectorspage 12

4.1.4 Role of international actors and national NGOs in Roma housing page 12

4.2.1 Roma and housing policiespage 14

4.2.3 Role of international actors and national NGOs in Roma housing page 17

4.3.1 Roma and housing policiespage 19

4.3.3 Legalisation of (Roma) informal houses and settlements page 214.3.4 Role of international actors and national NGOs in Roma housing page 22

V CONCLUSIONS, LESSONS LEARNT AND GOOD PRACTICES IDENTIFIED

page 24

5.1 General conclusions and lessons learnt

page 24

5.3 Follow-up and proposals for future thematic groups/visits

page 29

Appendix 4: European and international standards and reference texts page 31

Note: An ADDENDUM TO THE THEMATIC REPORT including all presentations

collected during the CAHROM thematic visit is available to the Secretariat upon request

I INTRODUCTION

A thematic group on the legalisation of Roma houses/settlements was set up at the request of theAlbanian CAHROM member at the 4th CAHROM meeting (Strasbourg, 28-30 November 2012)2 Aletter from the Albanian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy confirming the invitation sent to theCAHROM’s group of experts to visit Tirana on 15-17 April 2013 was received by the Secretariat on 4April 2013 (see Appendix 1)

The CAHROM members of Bosnia and Herzegovina and “the former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia”, which had participated in a previous CAHROM thematic group on “ Social housing for

common history as countries from ex-Yugoslavia They also have a similar agenda and policyapproach in the field of Roma housing: i.e to develop a legal basis for the legalisation of Romasettlements and to develop social housing programmes that will include a large number of Romafamilies It was therefore useful to compare the different measures which had been undertaken bythese two countries with the policy and measures undertaken in the requesting country, Albania.During the 5th CAHROM meeting (Strasbourg, 14-16 May 2013), following a preliminary discussionabout the main outcomes of the thematic visit to Tirana which reflected the fact that discussionswent beyond the topic of legalisation, the Committee agreed to rename this report as follows:

“social housing for Roma and legalisation of Roma settlements and houses”4

The present thematic report should therefore be read alongside the thematic report on “Socialhousing for Roma” (with “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” as a requesting country, andBosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Spain as partner countries) endorsed by the CAHROM at its

4th meeting5

With a view to preparing the thematic report and visit, each expert of the thematic group was asked

to provide background information about the situation of Roma, the legislative framework andmeasures pertinent to the legalisation of Roma settlements/houses and social housing for Roma.The documents submitted by the requesting and partner countries, as well as presentations madeduring the visit, appear in an Addendum to this report available from the CAHROM Secretariat

In the two partner countries covered by this report, Roma are considered as a national minorityunder the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and benefit from targetedand positive discrimination measures in the context of respective national Roma strategies InAlbania, Roma are considered as an ethno-linguistic minority which is covered by the FrameworkConvention

The three countries also participate in the Decade for Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) and havedeveloped Decade Action Plans, including in the area of housing6 The present report takes into

consideration some of the findings of the Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of

former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”8

The thematic group of experts was composed of experts from the respective ministries in charge ofRoma and/or housing policies:

2 See paragraph 1 of document CAHROM (2012)21 Abridged report of the 4 th CAHROM meeting and paragraph 14 of document CAHROM (2013)3 Report of the 5 th meeting of the CAHROM Bureau, available on the CAHROM website (http://hub.coe.int/web/coe-portal/cahrom1).

3 Originally due to be the third partner country, Serbia subsequently cancelled its participation due to time and staff constraints related to internal changes within the Roma Secretariat of the Office of Human and Minority Rights Serbia, nevertheless, offered

to be the requesting country and to host a thematic visit later in 2013 of a CAHROM group of experts on rehousing solutions and housing loans for Roma, combating evictions and guaranteeing security of tenure.

4 See para 28 of the Abridged Report of the 5 th CAHROM meeting [document CAHROM (2013)13].

5 See document CAHROM (2012)8 accessible on the CAHROM website at http://hub.coe.int/web/coe-portal/cahrom1

6 See the Decade Action Plans at http://www.romadecade.org/decade_action_plans.

7 See http://www.romadecade.org/cms/upload/file/9270_file2_al_civil-society-monitoring-report_en.pdf

8 See http://www.romadecade.org/cms/upload/file/9270_file10_mc_civil-society-monitoring-report_en.pdf

 For Albania, the Technical Secretariat on Roma within the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairsand Equal Opportunities and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport in Albania;

 For “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy”,the Ministry of Transport9, as well as the Association of Local Self-Government Units;

 For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees

The OSCE-ODIHR through its project “Best Practices for Roma Integration (BPRI)” funded by the

EU and participating States, has ensured the participation in this thematic group of an additional

expert of Roma origin from each of the three participating countries The list of experts and

participants appears in Appendix 2

The agenda of the thematic visit, which appears in Appendix 3, was organised by the TechnicalSecretariat on Roma within the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Itincluded a round table and bilateral meetings which involved the People’s Advocate, the Ministry ofPublic Works and Transport, the Municipality of Tirana, the UNDP, UNICEF and Council of EuropeOffices in Tirana, as well as representatives from civil society In addition, the group of expertsvisited two informal Roma settlements in Tirana, Shkoza and Bregu I Lumit The morning of the 3rd

day was devoted to a debriefing meeting between experts of the thematic group and the Secretariatand to which a representative of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport was associated

II CONTEXT AND EXPECTATIONS

The thematic exchange on social housing for Roma and legalisation of Roma settlements and

houses was timely for the three countries concerned by this report.

Amendments to the national social housing policy (Law no 9232) were approved by the AlbanianGovernment in May 2012 The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities which is incharge of monitoring national inclusion strategies and is currently revising its national Action Plansfor the Decade of Roma Inclusion, including the housing Action Plan, was interested in hearingabout the experience of countries of the Balkan region engaged in a similar process such as Bosniaand Herzegovina and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”

There was also a particular interest among the group of experts for collecting information regardinglegislation on legalisation of settlements, social housing-related legislation and methodology used

to select beneficiaries for social housing programmes Albania is also involved in thedecentralisation of powers to local and regional authorities and was therefore interested to knowmore about the degree of involvement of local and regional actors in the implementation ofhousing-related policies

The thematic visit to Tirana was itself timely since the municipality is engaged in a process ofproviding 385 social housing units for vulnerable categories of the population, including Romafamilies The People’s Advocate also considered the CAHROM visit as being timely as ECRI hadjust published recommendations to Albania Following the CAHROM group of experts’ visit toTirana, the People’s Advocate provided the group of experts with the Executive Summary of hisRecommendations to state institutions of Albania with regard to minority rights, pre-universityeducational system; protection from discrimination and living conditions of the Roma minority inAlbania10

It was however mentioned during the visit that elections in June 2013 did not constitute the idealmoment for engaging in any immediate reform The Albanian interlocutors were neverthelessconfident that by the time of the endorsement by the CAHROM of the thematic report, i.e in late

9 Due to the late receipt of the formal invitation letter from the requesting country, the Ministry of Transport of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” could not send any representative to the thematic visit in Tirana The Ministry of Transport, however, was associated with the drafting of this thematic report and provided the experts of the thematic group with a written presentation (available in the Addendum of this report).

10 These documents are available in Appendix 4 to this report.

October 2013, national and local authorities would be more receptive and could use the results ofthis thematic exercise as a valuable source of inspiration for their housing policy.

Albania, as a requesting country was interested in tackling two aspects: 1) social housingprogrammes, in particular selection criteria for beneficiaries; and 2) models of partnershipsbetween the public and the private sector The Albanian CAHROM member had provided the group

of experts with the following two items for discussion prior to the thematic visit

1) Social housing programmes: Is there any intervention in partner countries that could be

done in determining the criteria for Roma, including interventions in the legislative field and/orinitiatives that could ensure a sustainable development of the process of completing thedocumentation for housing of the Roma community?11

2) Successful models of partnership between the public and private sectors: How can

this type of cooperation solve the problems faced by the Roma community? Are there any concretemodels of public and private partnership? If not, what are the difficulties faced in the development

of this process?12

Other questions identified by the group of experts prior to the thematic visit are listed below:

- Have any steps been taken under the Decade Action Plan to broaden the scope of housinginterventions, urban planning and rural development and make them part of acomprehensive cross-sectorial approach?13

- Which process of legalisation of illegally constructed buildings has been followed?

- Are there any negotiations with authorities in order to legalize settlements?

- Are there any quantifiable indications as to the number of people, including Roma, affected

- How many illegal settlements are there?

- Is there a quantifiable indication as to the change in the number of Roma with improvedaccess to public utilities and social services infrastructure?

- Are there any contradictions between mainstream housing/regional policies and housingpriorities set up in the national Roma inclusion strategy or Roma Decade action plan?

- Identify which measures have been adopted to promote the legalisation of Romasettlements

In Albania there are two different groups: Roma and Egyptians Currently Roma and Egyptians inAlbania differ from each other having completely different identities14

According to the population census from 2011, 8,301 persons declared themselves as Roma

(0.30% of the total population) Estimates of the size of the Roma population in Albania range from40,000 to 120,00015 Roma live all over the country, although the biggest communities areconcentrated in and around Tirana, the towns of Fier, Gjirokaster and Berat, and around the town of

11 In Albania, it is not possible to determine specific eligibility criteria for Roma.

12 In Albania there has been only one model of public and private partnership, i.e the project of low-cost housing from which the Roma community benefits This model is a Government initiative in cooperation with the BKT bank.

13 In this respect, please see the article by Jaroslav Kling (UNDP) entitled “Roma inclusion: Building houses does not solve the

housing issue” at does-not-solve-the-housing-issue/

http://www.al.undp.org/content/albania/en/home/presscenter/articles/2013/08/21/roma-inclusion-building-houses-14 See ECRI report from 2002.

15 90,000 to 120,000 are estimated figures mentioned in the “National Strategy for Improving Roma Living Conditions” based on

data from 1995 provided by the International Group of Minority Rights and the University of Maryland The highest estimate of

120,000 is also mentioned in Maria Koinova’s report, Roma of Albania, August 2000, Albanian Helsinki Committee,

(CEDIME-SE), available at: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-albania-roma.doc The estimates provided by local NGO representatives with whom the Delegation met during the visit, for instance, the Director of Roma Active Albania, Adriatik Hasantari, range from 40,000 to 70,000, meaning that the 1995 figures might have been overestimated.

Korce16 A great majority of them are living in deplorable conditions and face extreme poverty andsocial marginalization A regional study of the UNDP published in 200617 reported that the rates ofpoverty and extreme poverty of Roma in Albania are particularly high (78% and 39%) The fact that

a Roma woman in Albania earns 36% of the average wage of an Albanian woman is anotherexample of the socio-economic situation of the Roma minority in Albania18

Unlike Roma, Egyptians do not speak the Romani language Their distinctive features include

particular activities such as blacksmiths, musicians, etc They have a syncretic religion (whichcombines different parts of Islam, Orthodox religion and Animism) Unlike the Roma, Egyptianshave been sedentary, usually living in “separate neighbourhoods” near the centre of cities or largevillages which often even took their name19 Compared to the Roma, they are more integrated intoAlbanian society Women’s clothing, oral tradition, social organisation and the lifestyle as a wholeare completely different between Roma and Egyptians Both groups used to have little socialcontact and marriages between them used to be rare This has changed in the last ten years withincreasing interactions and intermarriages between the two communities

Referring back to the conclusions of the World Bank qualitative needs assessment study carried out

by a World Bank team from January 2002 to June 200320, “in comparison with the majority of the

population, the percentage of the "very poor" group of households among Roma and Egyptians is apparently much higher: respectively 75 percent and 70 percent, while for the majority population, it is 28.8 percent These communities are distinguished by two extremes, the 80 percent defined as the

"very poor" and "poor" households, and a 5 percent minority in relatively good financial shape”.

See the table below for a distribution of identified poverty categories among Roma, Egyptians, andAlbanians:

Source: 2002 World Bank qualitative needs assessment study on poverty in Albania.

As regards the housing situation, the same report concluded that “more than 40 percent of Roma

and 30 percent of Egyptian families do not have running water in their homes because water connections have not been installed The majority of these families live in makeshift or dilapidated housing with surface areas much lower than the national average They also face difficulties obtaining state assistance and other forms of social assistance” Though some progress has been made over

the last ten years in several Roma policy areas, the above description regarding the housingsituation of Roma remains globally relevant

Between 25,000 and 30,000 Roma are estimated to live in Bosnia and Herzegovina according torecent research 19,500 persons or 4,500 households require some type of assistance as described

in the Strategy and Action Plan Other estimates consider that the Roma population in Bosnia andHerzegovina could total around 76,000 persons or 2% of the total population21

16 ERRC Report, 1997:8.

17 See also UNDP national and regional studies from 2011/2012 referred to under chapter 2.4.

18 See also the Profile of Albanian Roma based on the UNDP/World Bank/EC1 regional Roma survey 2011 and with additional country specific data from the “Needs Assessment Study on Roma and Egyptians Communities in Albania”(2011) at:

http://www.al.undp.org/content/dam/albania/docs/misc/Roma%20in%20%20Albania%20June%202012%20profile.pdf

19 A.T, 1943; Milaj, 1943.

20 De Soto et al Poverty in Albania: A Qualitative Assessment, 2002.

21 See Powerpoint presentation of Hilswerk International Austria, delivered at the CAHROM thematic visit on social housing for

Roma in Skopje.

2.3.3 “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”

According to the 2002 population census, the official number of Roma is 53,000, i.e 2.6% of thetotal population, although estimated figures suggest that the total number could be over 150,000,reaching above 9% of the total population

Roma are recognised as a distinct ethnicity in the preamble of the Constitution The Skopjeneighbourhood of Shuto Orizari is Europe's first Roma municipality (led by a Roma mayor) and theonly one in the world where the Romani language has been granted an official status

Roma do not concentrate in a particular region of the country, but are instead spread all over theterritory According to the 2002 population census, twenty-seven municipalities have a share ofRoma exceeding 1%; ten of them have a share of Roma exceeding 4% Ethnic differences are lessrelevant than the way of life, costume and appearance that the members of this group share Most

of them still speak their own language, Romani, together with the language that dominates in theregions where they are located, i.e Macedonian and/or Albanian A number of Roma in “the formerYugoslav Republic of Macedonia” are Muslim, although some of them practise other religions too

The right to adequate and secure housing is a key human right and is enshrined in internationalhuman rights law The UNDP/WB/EC regional Roma survey from 2011 provides informationregarding the percentage of households facing multiple deprivations (see table below22)

Following his visit to Albania in June 2008, the former Commissioner for Human Rights of theCouncil of Europe, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, concluded that the situation of the Roma community,including the issues of housing and property documents concerning them, deserves specialattention23

Taking into account the UNDP-commissioned “Needs Assessment Study on Roma and Egyptian

communities in Albania” carried out by the Tirana-based Centre for Economic and Social Studies

(CESS) in February 201224, Roma have lived for many years in the same settlements thus taking itfor granted that they own their homes, whereas in reality the state owns the land This may explainthe very high percentage of respondents claiming to “own” their home – 80.6%.The mainconstraints in terms of dwellings for the Roma community appear to be the lack of drinking water,toilets and sewage facilities inside the household, followed by means of communication such asthe possibility to install a telephone line In addition, community infrastructure in general seems to

be lacking as a large percentage of the community’s members report living in neighbourhoods witheither unpaved roads or roads in a bad condition

22 Abbreviations: AL (Albania), BA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), BG (Bulgaria), H (Hungary), HR (Croatia), CZ (Czech Republic),

MD (Republic of Moldova), ME (Montenegro), MK (“the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”), RO (Romania), RS (Serbia),

SK (Slovak Republic).

23 See Chapter IV of document CommDH(2008)8 Report by the Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, on his visit to Albania (27 October – 2 November 2007).

24 http://www.al.undp.org/content/dam/albania/docs/Roma%20Needs%20Assessment.pdf

Almost 1/4 of interviewees live in shacks, tents or other non-brick housing units This is a very highpercentage compared to the rest of the population and directly affects the socio-economicconditions of the Roma The remaining interviewees - 38.4% - declare that they live mainly in oldhouses.

The legalisation process directly affects Roma and Egyptian households through the

improvement of their quality of living and better access to communal resources, as well as throughthe freeing up of equity for any further investment intended by the real estate owner - hence theimportance of public information policies regarding applications and legal aid for legalisationprocedures Roma interviewees show a peri-urban profile, illustrated by the fact that only 12.5%report owning agricultural land 49.4% of those who own land cultivate grain, 19.1% do not growanything and 20.2% rent out the agricultural land

In addition to the dwelling conditions, the majority of the Roma report living in areas that haveunpaved roads (52.2%) or have roads which are in a bad condition (22.5%) The high frequency ofinternal migration makes their dwelling conditions precarious In many of the new settlements, theRoma live in camps consisting of tents or huts located mainly on the rivers banks The size of thecamp varies according to the area In Tirana (Shkoza, Farka, etc.) and Shkodra, camps are largeand consist of 20 to 50 tents/huts In Kukës, Peshkopi, Shupenza, Beltoja, Vrion, etc they consist

of 10 to 20 tents/huts, while in Fushë Ali, Qafë e Vishës, Ersekë, etc from 2 to 5 tents In someother settlements, such as Saranda and Milot, the Roma have put up their tents in abandonedwarehouses, paying rent to their owners In small settlements the Roma are often members of thesame family, while in the big settlements the Roma families come from different areas of Albania.According to the Civil Society Monitoring report on the implementation of the National RomaIntegration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in Albania25 “housing is the second highest

priority concern of the Roma community in Albania (see graphic below and also Chapter 4.1).

“Homelessness, rehabilitation of houses, legalisation and property title issues, and poor infrastructure

“Roma families are almost always excluded from the social housing programs Few of them can

benefit from low-cost social housing because the majority of Roma are unemployed and/or do not

considered a specific target group in the social housing rental program and Roma housing conditions are not properly quantified – families living in slums are not included in housing statistics, families without income are not included in the economic status and Roma families in general are excluded in statistics about social conditions As a result, it is obvious that social housing programs only address housing problems of specific families in need and these programs are not dedicated to Roma families”28

In April 2013, the People’s Advocate in Albania made public his recommendations to state

institutions regarding minority rights, the pre-university educational system, protection from

25 http://www.romadecade.org/cms/upload/file/9270_file2_al_civil-society-monitoring-report_en.pdf

26 Ibid, page 55.

27 UNDP representatives encountered during the visit underlined that Roma families may have regular monthly income from informal activities (scrap collection, trading second-hand clothes or other craft or industrial products in the open market) However, these families cannot prove such income (lack of a verifiable source of income).

28 Ibid, page 11.

discrimination and the living conditions of the Roma ethno-linguistic minority29 Three of theserecommendations are of particular relevance for Roma:

 Improving the legal framework for the recognition and protection of minorities in Albania, inaccordance with the provisions of the Framework Convention of the Council of Europe onthe protection of national minorities” (submitted to the Prime Minister);

 Improving the Law no 10221 on the protection from discrimination from 4 February 2010(submitted to the Minister of Justice and to the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and EqualOpportunities);

 Adopting measures to improve the living conditions of the Roma ethno-linguistic minority(submitted to the Minister of Public Works and Transport)

In 2004 ERRC reported that several years after the warring parties had ratified the Dayton PeaceAgreement (Nov 1995) that provided for the return of refugees into the country, many Roma

families who had returned to Bosnia from Western Europe still did not have access to their

pre-war homes which were either occupied or had been destroyed Many of these families were temporarily placed in unauthorised and substandard locations or settlements with no water supply or sanitary infrastructure.

It was repeatedly said that the substandard housing conditions of Roma negatively affect their access to education and employment, as well as access to healthcare institutions, and generally

prompt deterioration in the health of people living in these settlements, hence the priority given tohousing by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Remaining challenges identified during the implementation of Roma housing projects include:

 The process of legalisation of illegally constructed buildings;

 Housing projects for homeless and refugees/returnees;

 The lack of direct resources of Roma beneficiaries; as a consequence, families are not

sufficiently involved in the re/construction and maintenance bills are a problem for certainRoma families Beneficiaries of projects are expected to contribute a minimum;

 The need for capacity-building for Roma communities and certain municipalities in

order to have them fully contributing in the implementation and monitoring of projects.During the conflict each of the ethnic groups established their own administrations that, among

other things, administered 'abandoned' property Legislation was enacted in all areas of Bosnia and

Herzegovina that deprived individuals of their property and allocated such property to otherindividuals on either a temporary or permanent basis Property was supposed to be allocated toindividuals with humanitarian needs, but often was not done so30

In 2009, Hilfswerk International Austria (HWA) performed the Study “Assessment of needs for social

housing in Bosnia and Herzegovina” under a contract with the Ministry for Human Rights and

Refugees The purpose of the research was to obtain information on total social housing needs inBosnia and Herzegovina covering the 12 most vulnerable categories by gender and age

The research included families with unresolved housing problems and excluded persons with the

temporary right to stay in the municipalities (displaced persons and refugees)

A total of 119 municipalities (84.4%) answered the survey Analysis of the results showed that28,322 households were in need of social housing, i.e more than 53,000 persons; 77% of thesehouseholds were living in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), whilst 23% were living

in Republika Srpska (RS)

2.4.3 “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”

In the area of housing for Roma, the Government is confronted with four main problems:

29 See written information received from the People’s Advocate in Appendix 4 to this report.

30 See “The Right to Housing and Property Restitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a case study” by Paul Prettitore (2003).

a) The Roma population are not sufficiently aware of the regulations and administrative

procedures in the field of property and do not have enough support for accessing

information;

b) Despite (social) housing policies and programmes in force for vulnerable population categories,

Roma, especially young married couples, do not have sufficient access to housing;

c) The housing situation of the Roma population needs to be scanned from all aspects (there is a

need for concrete statistical data) Local scanning is very important because of the

competencies of the Units of Local Self-Governments (ULSG) in the area of housing and inorder to make needs and impact assessments;

d) Temporary accommodation is not adequate (the same problem applies to everyone, but it

especially affects the Roma population) There are no regulated procedures for leavingtemporary accommodation or for granting durable housing

About 80,000 households lack long-term housing solutions and 12% of the housing stock is standard The average age of buildings in the country is 30 years, and, a result of poor

sub-maintenance, most are in need of immediate replacement or renovation.

Living conditions of rural, poor, Roma are particularly bad The primary need is access to water and proper sewerage Housing conditions are particularly bad for Roma households About

320,000 people, almost 15% of the country’s population, live in illegally constructed

buildings The capital city, Skopje, hosts squatter settlements of about 120,000 people It has the

largest Roma community in Europe which lives in a ghetto-like environment

According to “Habitat for Humanity-Macedonia”, many Roma live in illegal houses, with less than 5

sq meters per person; they have limited access to finances, are not represented enough in stateinstitutions, lack education and have sub-standard living conditions with little access to basicinfrastructure

According to the Civil Society Monitoring Report on the implementation of the National Roma

Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012, “there are no data available on the number of

Roma living in segregated environments in Macedonia31 and there have been no measures to promote residential desegregation As a result, there are also no quantifiable indications as to any change in the number of Roma living in segregated environments in 2012 On the other hand, there are no contradictions between mainstream housing policies and the goal of desegregation, with the country’s flagship social housing project allotting housing to Romani families in ethnically mixed

III RELEVANT EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND REFERENCE TEXTS

Roma and housing issues such as the legalisation of Roma settlements and houses, as well as theinclusion of Roma beneficiaries in social housing policies, have been extensively addressed anddocumented by European and international governmental and non-governmental organisationsthrough conventions, recommendations, case-law, reports and projects Particularly relevant arereports covering the countries from the present thematic group from UNDP, World Bank, OSCE,from the Civil Society Monitoring of Roma National Strategies and Decade Action Plans and fromECRI33

According to Paragraph 24 on the legalisation of Roma settlements of the RecommendationRec(2005)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on improving the housing conditions

of Roma and Travellers in Europe, “the public authorities should make every effort to resolve

the undefined legal status of Roma settlements as a precondition for further improvements

Where Roma camp illegally, public authorities should use a proportionate response This may be through negotiation or the use of legal action However, they should seek, where possible, solutions,

31 http://www.romadecade.org/cms/upload/file/9270_file10_mc_civil-society-monitoring-report_en.pdf Note that “Macedonia” is the officially term recognised under the Decade for Roma Inclusion and has been used exclusively used in this report in quotations of Roma Decade documents It should be understood as “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”’ used otherwise

in the rest of the report.

32 See above Civil Society Monitoring Report, page 13.

33 Relevant texts can be found in Appendix 4.

which are acceptable for all parties in order to avoid Roma from being excluded from access to

Paragraph 31 of the same CM Recommendation states the following: “Bearing in mind the diversity

of national, regional and local situations, member states should provide for adequate housing models, through national legislations, policies or strategies Provision should also be made for Roma to be able to acquire their own accommodation by different means, forms and methods of access to

housing, such as social housing, cooperatives, do-it-yourself housing, public housing, caravans and

other innovative forms of housing All the relevant elements to the housing models mentioned (financial, social and other) should be carefully defined”.

Both the CoE and the EU prioritise the implementation of integrated approaches on Roma housing

to promote desegregation, to facilitate public utility and social service infrastructures and toimprove the availability, affordability and quality of social housing with access to affordableservices

IV LEGISLATION, POLICIES, STRUCTURES AND SPECIFIC MEASURES

4.1.1 Roma and housing policies

In Albania, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is responsible for housing issues in general,whilst the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has responsibility to coordinate and monitorimplementation of both the National Strategy on Improving the Living Conditions of the Romaminority (adopted in 2003) and the Roma Decade Action Plans

In 2003 the Albanian Government adopted the “National Strategy for Improving the Living

Conditions of the Roma Minority” (hereafter the Strategy”) It was drafted by the representatives

of all relevant Ministries of the Albanian Government in consultation with the representatives of theRoma NGOs The Strategy covers a period of 15 years and comprises five important and broadfields: special education and training; cultural heritage and family; economy, employment, decrease

of poverty and social protection; health and infrastructure; and, public order, justice and civil

administration

The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities is monitoring the

implementation of the Strategy and has established a special section to this end called the

Technical Secretariat on Roma.

According to international stakeholders (including the Council of Europe35, European Union andUNDP) and civil society representatives represented in the Roma Decade, the implementation ofthe Strategy has been slow and ineffective and the Strategy has not been supported by sufficientresources There has also been a lack of periodic implementation assessments, which are vital toensure that the Strategy is updated and really addresses the acute problems

The former Commissioner of Human Rights of the Council of Europe36 believed that the monitoringmechanism of this Strategy should be strengthened and clear evaluation mechanisms should beestablished, with clear deadlines when appropriate He also recommended an effective use oflimited financial resources and an active involvement of the Roma community in all phases of theprocess

On 24 July 2008, Albania joined the Decade for Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) and developed a

National Action Plan for the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2010-2015 which includes “Housing andInfrastructure” under its main priorities In this area, the strategic goal of the Albanian Government

was sustainable improvement of housing conditions for the Roma population, and the main objective

was to provide opportunities for Roma to access housing and infrastructure services in compliance

with the state standards.

The main activities envisaged under the Housing and Infrastructure Chapter of the National DecadeAction Plan are the following:

 Updating the housing needs (building of houses; reconstruction of houses; repairing themain infrastructure) in all the local units where Roma reside;

 Building of new houses and reconstruction of uninhabitable dwellings for the Roma families

in need;

 Priority financing of the water supply and sewage projects in the areas inhabited by Roma;

 Priority financing of projects concerning secondary road infrastructure in the areasinhabited by Roma;

 Addressing the priority requests of the Roma regarding solutions for land ownership issues,

illegal buildings and legalisation, through the implementation of the relevant legislation;

 Adopting and implementing local social housing programmes for Roma families in need

(social housing for rent; low-cost housing; provision of land37 served with infrastructureand permission to build a house)

4.1.2 Social housing (for Roma)

Amendments to the National Social Housing Policy (Law no 9232) were approved by the

Albanian Government in May 2012

The Social Housing Programme of the Municipality of Tirana aims to facilitate access to

housing for vulnerable groups according to criteria established by legal acts which provide socialhousing and low interest loans This programme facilitates in particular the procedures forcompleting all relevant documents required by applicants to become included in the list ofhomeless citizens However, members of the Roma community are faced with difficulties in fulfillingthe criterion of “regular income” needed to become beneficiaries of this scheme, especially if theyare unemployed, since they are not registered as unemployed job-seekers or cannot prove theirincome resulting from informal activities Often they cannot envisage paying the rent and creditrepayments even if they benefitted from a facilitated loan Local interlocutors have also complainedabout delays in implementing this programme38

In the Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma IntegrationStrategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in Albania, a whole chapter is dedicated to social housingprogrammes, explaining how the distribution of social housing is carried out in Albania and howRoma are not specifically targeted for these housing programmes There is a points system inplace according to the situation of the family, whereby Roma families get 5 points out of 100 (forexample in the municipality of Elbasan)39

4.1.3 Partnership between the public and the private sectors

The Municipality of Tirana aims to create successful models of partnership between the public

sector (represented by the local or public administration) and private sector (local economicrepresentation, business associations, and private financial institutions)

4.1.4 Role of international actors and national NGOs in the field of Roma and housing

An agreement was signed in November 2007 between the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and

Equal Opportunities and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the support of

the National Strategy for Improving the Living Conditions of the Roma Minority and Decade ActionPlans and the monitoring of their implementation

37 According to UNDP, “provision of land” may imply “sale” or simply “making the land available at no costs without transferring the ownership title”.

38 The process of dissemination of the 400 social apartments has been suspended for more than two years due to political stalemate characterizing the city council of Tirana.

39 See pages 57-59 of the Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in Albania.

In Tirana, the group of experts visited the offices of UNDP to deepen discussions about projectscarried out by UNDP for Roma and Egyptian communities UNDP considers the housing of Roma

to be very important although it is costly and long-term

From 2010 to 2012, UNDP provided legal aid for civil registration, covering births, transfer ofresidence, child custody, the unemployed job-seeking, application for healthcare and social welfareand various types of pensions It also provided assistance to some 100 Roma families for preparingtheir application/documentation for social housing in Tirana (37 to 40 of these Roma families could

be eligible for receiving social housing by the Municipality of Tirana)

UNDP Projects on Roma/Egyptian communities are implemented in 7 out of the 12 Albanianregions and are aimed at supporting participatory planning, facilitating access to rights, as well aspromoting institutional strengthening for social inclusion The major activities that have beenfocused on are mobilizing communities for identifying local development priorities, co-financingwith local governments infrastructure projects identified by Roma/Egyptian communities (i.e.kindergarten, health centres, internal roads, sewage, community centres etc.), training andprovision of micro-grants for Roma/Egyptian civil society organisations, vocational trainings andemployability assistance for Roma/Egyptian job-seekers, legal aid for civil registration, assisting theTechnical Secretariat on Roma to monitor the National Decade Action Plan for Roma, as well aspromoting intercultural exchange and social inclusion

Additionally, UNDP has been providing advice to the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and EqualOpportunities and to the Peoples’ Advocate and local institutions in relation to various legalamendments on social housing, social welfare, transfer of residence, civil registration, as well as onother public and social rights with a view to responding to the needs of Roma and Egyptiancommunities UNDP has also advised the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunitiesfor setting-up a National Reception Centre which should provide immediate and transitory shelter tothose families ( including Roma) who do not meet yet criteria for standard social housingprogrammes and/or have applied and waiting for an answer

Currently, UNDP is supporting the Municipality of Tirana in the drafting of a local action plan forRoma in which housing policies would also be addressed Yet, it is to be highlighted that within thehousing concept there are various alternatives (immediate shelter and humanitarian assistance,rent bonus, provision of land served with infrastructure, credits with low or zero interest, socialapartments, etc.) When choosing among them, one should consider the current profile of thefamilies in need (i.e long-term unemployed and homeless, no employment skills, surviving ininformality via individual scrap collection, running a big family, often developing a forced primitiveliving style, etc.)

Partner countries’ experts were also interested by the promotion of Roma handicraft in Albania,supported by UNDP and the EU Delegation

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) has funded a Rental Social Housing

Programme This programme is implemented in 8 municipalities40 and started with houseconstruction in 2008 It aims to accommodate 1,138 families in total In early 2011, the first familieswere sheltered in the Municipality of Berat (48 families from which 12 families belong to theEgyptian community), and in 2012 the Municipality of Elbasan accommodated 90 families from 96apartments in total (from which 10 families belong to the Roma community) Other municipalitiesare in the process of selecting beneficiaries

4.1.5 Other housing projects

The Albanian expert from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport provided the followingadditional information:

On the basis of information received from the municipalities around 16,000 families hadmade an application for low cost housing in 2010 From 2008 until 2012, 2,064 familiesbenefited from facilitated loans This model is an initiative from the State Governmentwhich has passed an agreement with BKT Bank

40 Berat, Durres, Elbasan, Fier, Kavaje, Korce, Peshkopi and Tirana.

 The housing bonus: this programme is applied to subsidize the rent when the apartment

rental is from the free market The rent subsidy is financed by the municipality itself

The group of experts was informed that there is no available disaggregated information aboutRoma families who have applied or benefited from the two above programmes, since neitherapplication forms nor the identification documents of applicants provide information on ethnicity “toavoid discrimination” This makes it difficult for the authorities to indicate the number of possibleRoma beneficiaries

in cases whereby the family is unable to afford social rent This programme has not yet

been implemented since the Rental Social Housing Programme has only just started

This programme envisages a list of priority beneficiaries41, including:

- Persons with orphan status;

- Persons with disabilities;

- Families of policemen killed on duty;

- Returned migrants;

- Employed migrants;

- Roma families 42;

- Employees of the State Police

The group of experts was informed that Roma can profit from a rent subsidy, not only as “Romafamilies” but also as applicants under other above-mentioned priority categories As an example, aRoma family having persons with disabilities can cumulate points from both “the Roma families”and “the persons with disabilities” categories

 Small grants programme for improving living conditions for the Roma community: this

programme was implemented in 2008 Initially planned to benefit 80 Roma families, thisprogramme benefited in the end only 28 Roma families due to the failure of tenders inKorçe and Tirana

Housing Agency and concerned the construction of an eight floor building in Korçe for 30Roma families, who will pay back the cost of the acquisition over 25 years

construction of 44 new dwellings in Korçe, a water and sanitation project for 50 families inTirana, as well as the financing of the improvement of infrastructure in a neighbourhood of

18 families in the municipality of Kucove Another project, established by Decree nr 343 of

29 April 2011, has passed the ownership of 8,150 square meters of land in Shkozet to theNational Housing Agency which was foreseen for the construction of approximately 70rental units, social services, kindergartens, etc to provide Roma families and families withlow income with housing

4.2 Bosnia and Herzegovina

4.2.1 Roma and housing policies

Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Decade of Roma Inclusion on 4 September 2008 In 2009 the

implementation of the Action Plan on Roma Housing adopted in July 2008 started

41 See for comparison the list of 12 priority categories of the housing programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina under 4.2.2.

42 According to a report of a meeting held on 19 July 2013 at the OSCE office on the housing situation of Roma, it appears that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the Municipality of Tirana have not a common understanding on Roma in relation

to social housing Whereas the Ministry claimed during that meeting that Roma applicants for social housing get 5 additional points for being Roma, the representative of the Municipality of Tirana stated that the municipality has not found a mechanism that would verify the person as belonging to the Roma population, adding that such an element is not included in any official documentation The above shows that, in practice, Roma would not be able to earn their 5 points in Municipality of Tirana

programmes UNDP offered advice suggesting that the application form for social housing should have a self-declaration as Roma section introduced Additionally, a recommendation from a well-established Roma organisation (or network of Roma

NGOs, such as the Roma Federation in Albania) could count as recognition/acceptance of that family by the Roma community This being said, it was also explained to the officials of the Municipality of Tirana that belonging to an ethnic/minority group is not verified or certified via an official document, but it is based on a self-declaration to be accepted by everyone.

The Roma Decade Housing Action Plan includes the following three main objectives:

 The urban development of Roma settlements (settlements inhabited by Roma) andlegalisation of individual housing buildings;

 Training and raising the awareness of both the Roma and society at large of housinglegislation and pertinent issues, Romani culture, etc.;

 Planning and construction of new housing buildings through social, donor and creditprogrammes

The main measures carried out include:

 To record and valorise existing buildings inhabited by Roma and develop a database;

 To regulate property relations (legal status of land);

 To legalise illegally constructed buildings, including required project documentation and

development;

 To allocate compensatory locations in accordance with local development plans;

 To construct and reconstruct infrastructure in Roma inhabited settlements in accordancewith special planning documentation;

 To repair and reconstruct existing legally constructed buildings with the aim of improvinghousing conditions;

 To create a more favourable legislative framework (drafting new and amending currentlaws);

 To build capacity within the Ministries and authorities aimed at the implementation of theAction Plans

4.2.2 Social housing (for Roma)

In order to implement the Action Plan on Housing, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of

Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter “the MHRR”) decided in 2009 to plan in the state budget

1,500,000 Euros each year during the Roma Decade period Out of this amount, 1,000,000 Euroswere allocated for Roma housing, the main priority of the Bosnian policy for Roma

Based on the planned financial means, the MHRR announced a public call for submitting Romahousing projects in June 2009 The public call lasted for a month All municipalities, cities, cantons,entities, local and international organisations and institutions and NGOs had the right to proposeprojects

The Commission in charge of the selection of the projects received 34 project proposals and nineprojects were funded by the state budget The Swedish International Development Co-operationAgency (SIDA) decided to provide funds for eight additional Roma housing projects that met allrequested criteria The state Roma housing projects are intended for the most vulnerable Romafamilies Priority was given to construction of Roma houses, as well as reconstruction andimprovement of living conditions and infrastructure of existing houses

On top of the state budget and SIDA funds, municipalities and local and international NGOs, asimplementers of the projects, participated with their own means Co-financing was crucial in thedecision taken by the Commission in charge of the selection of the projects Taking intoconsideration all invested funds in Roma housing in 2009, a total of 2,900,000 Euros was spent.Attention was paid to the number of housing units and cost per Roma housing unit in the projects.Infrastructure connections were obligatory Roma representatives participated in the selectionprocess and independent monitoring

Once a project was approved, a Commission in charge of the selection of beneficiaries was set up

It consisted of: a municipal representative, social welfare centres representatives, implementingpartners and two local Roma representatives This Commission selected the most vulnerable Romafamilies as beneficiaries of the project Representatives of the MHRR were observers of theselection process

The Roma housing projects that were approved in 2009 were carried out in 2010, taking intoconsideration that the implementers had to respect all legal procedures for the selection of theconstruction companies, public procurement procedures, etc.

The construction/reconstruction of Roma housing units was done in accordance with theregulations on unified housing standards and conditions for reconstruction (minimum livingconditions as per legislation) In the regulations, all construction conditions are prescribed (innerwalls, roof, isolation, bathroom equipment, infrastructure connections, etc.)

The results of the 2009 Roma Housing Projects are as follows:

 213 Roma housing units were constructed/reconstructed or improved;

 85 Roma families benefited from infrastructure projects

In 2010 the MHRR planned in the state budget the same amount for Roma housing (i.e €.

1,000,000) The Federation Ministry for Spatial Planning contributed €150,000

In order to receive more Roma housing project applications that would meet all specified criteria,the MHRR organised regional workshops and trained local authorities and NGOs in how to preparethe projects

The public call for Roma housing projects for 2010 was announced in June 2010 and lasted for

a month

The Commission in charge of the selection of the projects received 41 project proposals, 34 ofwhich met all requested criteria The Commission visited all Roma locations proposed in thesubmitted projects and decided to provide funds for 13 Roma housing projects

The realisation of the Roma housing projects from 2010 was continued in 2011 The MHRR

contributed financially together with the Ministry for Spatial Planning of the Federation of Bosniaand Herzegovina in 2011 and decided to finance three projects

The 2010 and 2011 projects were continued in the next years with the cycle repeated Thebudgetary means were allocated for 2012 and 2013 as well The cycle of selection of Romahousing projects and planning of funds will be continued each year in the same way

Achieved results up to the beginning of 2013:

- 360 Roma housing units were constructed or reconstructed;

- 270 Roma families were beneficiaries of infrastructure projects;

- In total, about 6 million Euros were spent on Roma housing in 3.5 years;

- Housing projects were implemented in 55 municipalities;

- The construction/reconstruction for an additional 100 housing units is expected in 2013based on budget funds allocated in 2012

The categories of beneficiaries included in the survey and the number of households concerned

were the following:

1 Households with extremely low incomes (below poverty line) – 8,182 households;

2 Households of minority groups (except for Roma) – 88 households;

3 Roma households – 1,391 households (see below);

4 Families of killed war veterans – 4,583 households;

5 Households with disabled persons (except for the civil victims of war) – 8,659 households;

6 Households with the civil victims of war – 2,597 households;

7 Households of single parents – 968 households;

8 Households with under-age children without parental care – 336 households;

9 Households placed in collective centres (except for the displaced persons) – 395households;

10 Households placed in temporary accommodation – 553 households;

11 Persons living in improvised accommodation (containers, sheds, garages) – 359households;

12 Homeless people (people without shelter of any kind) – 219 households

1,256 households in the whole country were considered as most vulnerable as they belonged totwo or more of the abovementioned categories.

1,391 households were Roma families (i.e 5.968 persons) This included 1,079 Roma families in

31 municipalities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and 312 Roma families ineight municipalities of Republika Srpska (RS)

As regards the housing project for Roma for 2009, the total project costs – for a duration of 18

months - amounted to 2,336,300 KM The Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees covered1,553,000 KM (66% of total costs), whilst Hilfswerk International Austria (HWA), the municipalityand other ministries jointly covered 783,700 KM (34% of total costs)

Direct beneficiaries included Roma families who were residents in targeted municipalities and

who had unresolved housing problems and/or lived in inhabitable housing units The total number

of Roma beneficiaries was 70 families (about 400 persons) from the municipalities of Zenica (16families), Kiseljak (15 families), Jajce (19 families) and Bijeljina (20 families)

Example of the project in Zenica: the 16 Roma families (75 persons) who benefited from the

project were living in collective centres and used to live – before the war –in now fully damagedbarracks belonging to Željezara (Kasine and Blatuši) They were granted to right to use the flats for

a period of five years Families must pay the rent, maintenance and utilities and are obliged to sendtheir children to school regularly Every five years their status and right for social housing will be re-examined

As regards the housing project for Roma for 2010, the total project costs for a duration of 12

months and for two municipalities (Tuzla and Banovići) amounted to 752,000 KM (600.000 KMcovered by MHRR and 152,000 KM covered by HWA/municipality/other ministries)

Direct beneficiaries were Roma families residing in the two targeted municipalities and with

unresolved housing issues and/or living in inhabitable housing units The total number of Romabeneficiaries was 28 families (about 100 persons), i.e 15 families in Tuzla and 13 families inBanovići

In all key phases (beneficiaries’ selection, best contractor, technical inspection, over-handing andtechnical acceptance of works) all relevant actors were involved, i.e.:

 Partner municipalities (and their departments for social work);

 Roma representatives;

 Involved ministries (MHRR and FMROI);

 Hilfswerk International Austria (HWA)

Tender procedures were prepared in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement of Bosniaand Herzegovina

The selection of beneficiaries was done on the basis of a public call in accordance to established criteria by the Committee for the Selection of Beneficiaries (CSB)

pre-Consideration was given to the use of alternative methodology in case of possible non-cooperationand/or avoidance of fulfilment of obligation by other project stakeholders;

4.2.3 Role of international actors and national NGOs in the field of Roma and housing

See under 4.2.2 above the contribution of the Swedish International Development Co-operation

Agency (SIDA) and Hilfswerk International Austria (HWA) to the Roma housing projects43

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) decided to provide funds for

eight additional Roma housing projects that met all the requested criteria (five in FbiH and three inRS/Brcko district) The contract was signed with the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees inNovember 2009 for a planned funding of 2,175,800 KM

43 For more details about their contribution, read the CAHROM thematic report on social housing for Roma available on the CAHROM public website at: http://hub.coe.int/web/coe-portal/cahrom1